Florida State Match-Up couples teams in strong field

Golfers will couple up this Valentine’s Day weekend at the Florida State Match-Up Friday through Sunday at the Southwood Golf Club in Tallahassee, Fla.

The women’s tournament features a unique format, crowning a Match-Up champion, a team champion and an individual champion. During the first two rounds, golfers were scheduled to play in twosomes according to the following pairings: Florida State/Texas A&M, Notre Dame/South Carolina, Clemson/Virginia, Furman/Kansas, Mercer/Florida Gulf Coast and Kansas State/Mississippi State. But with weather issues canceling flights across the country, Notre Dame was unable to make it to Florida, leaving South Carolina without a playing partner.

The Match-Up scoring format is as follows: the two combined teams will submit the four lowest scores from their 10 total players and the highest, or worst, score from that same group, resulting in a five-round score. A trophy is presented to the pair of schools that post the best score in that format.

Florida State head coach Amy Bond said that she wanted to keep the integrity of the scoring format, despite the loss of Notre Dame. She opted to have South Carolina draw a playing partner blindly, and the Gamecocks selected Mississippi State. Mississippi State will play as partners to both South Carolina and Kansas State, and South Carolina will play the first two rounds of the tournament with various individual performers.

The final round of golf will be played in threesomes with adjusted tee times.

Bond said that every school flying in, with the exception of Texas A&M, was forced to adjust its travel plans in some capacity. Some schools flew in a day early, while others landed in separate destinations and drove to Tallahassee.

The top returning finisher from last year’s tournament is the host team, Florida State. The Seminoles finished in fourth behind Georgia, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Clemson (No. 13), South Carolina (No. 14) and Mississippi State (No. 25) are the three teams ranked in the top 25, according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings.